Boca vs. River, El Superclasico

Update: We weren’t able to get tickets at the stadium. The game was canceled on Sunday and rescheduled for Thursday, March 25. Boca Juniors won 2 – 0!

The Boca vs. River game, el superclasico, is this Sunday and it’s being played at the Boca stadium, La Bombonera. I’m not a big sports fan, but we saw the Boca vs. Racing game two weeks ago and it was thrilling. Plus, the Boca vs. River rivalry is one of the greatest in the world. It’s even listed in the 50 sporting things you must do before you die by The Observer. And not just listed, it’s first on the list!

So, we’re going to try to go. Everyone says that you absolutely cannot get tickets at the stadium on game day. We’re going to try because a lot of people told us the same thing two weeks ago, and we did get tickets for less than a third of what online retailers were asking for.

I’m a Boca fan because Boca represents the working class and I like that. Plus, we live in San Telmo, so Boca is our neighbor.

First, some terminology.

Hincha and Hinchada

Hincha means fan. Hinchada means a group of fans. And boy, Boca’s hinchada is out of this world. You’ll often hear people say “soy de Boca,” or “soy hincha de Boca.” When the whole group is together, waving flags and singing in unison, that’s the hinchada.

Los Xeneizes, the greatest fans in the world.

Other names that Boca fans go by are los xeneizes, or the Genovese after the Italian immigrants that lived in La Boca and founded the team, and la doce, or number 12 for the 12th player. Fans from other teams call Boca fans losbosteros, or manure handlers. Sometimes losxeneizes also call themselves losbosteros.

Canticos de Boca or Boca Chants

I was dying to chant along with the hinchada, but I couldn’t figure out what they were saying. I’ve collected the chants I heard the most at the game here. Click on title to hear the chant, and open our list of the lyrics and their English translations in a new window to read along as you listen. You might even want to print them out to take with you to the game.

Dale Bo’ – Let’s Go Bo’ (Bo’ is short for Boca)- If you just want to learn one chant, this is the one to learn. Basically, it ends every chant they have.

Hinchada Hay Una Sola – Group of Fans, There’s Only One – Lots of people agree that these are the greatest fans in the world. I’m from Louisiana, home of the Saints (Who Dat?) and LSU and even I’ve never seen anything like the Boca fans.

Vamos Los Xeneizes Vamos A Ganar – Come On Boca Fans, We’re Gonna Win – So I mentioned above that los xeneizes refers to the group of Genovese immigrants that founded the team, but more specifically, Xena is Genova in the Genovese dialect, so xeneizes is people from Genova.

Chants That Mention River

River fans are called lasgallinas by Boca fans. Basically, they’re saying that River fans are chickens, but gallina actually means hen. Same idea, but I guess for these guys, being called a hen is worse than being called a chicken. River fans call themselves losmillionarios. No explanation needed.

River, Compadre – River, Man – Here we go with the lyrics that aren’t kid-friendly. What rhymes with compadre? You’ll have to listen to find out.

El Que No Salta Es Una Gallina – Whoever Doesn’t Jump Is a Chicken – We used to dare other kids by calling them chicken. How did chickens get such a bad reputation? If you’re sitting in the Boca section and they start this one, you might want to start jumping.

Todas Las Gallinas Son Asi – That’s How Chickens Are – I like this one because it’s sums up what’s great about Boca fans. In essence it says that if River fans aren’t winning, they don’t go to the games, but Boca fans always support their team.

Azul y Oro

The story behind the colors of the team is one of my favorite parts of the history of Boca Juniors. Boca’s first jerseys were pink, not very tough. Since it was founded by workers in La Boca, the port of the city of Buenos Aires, the founders decided that they would take the colors of the first ship to enter the port after their meeting discussing the colors. The first ship was Swedish, hence blue and gold, or azuly oro. Way better than pink!

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I am the founder of San Telmo Loft. In 2007, I bought The Loft and began renting it out as I had already signed a two-year contract in another apartment. Owners in the same building asked me to rent out their apartments when they weren't in town. And from there, our collection of vacation rentals grew to include a number of other soulfully decorated, vintage-inspired, apartments in historic buildings. I currently live in New Orleans and travel back to Buenos Aires twice a year.

Hey, guys. Nice post.
It’s quite funny that I came across your blog, because I have lived in both Lousianna (Baton Rouge) and San telmo (had an apartment in Peru, Carlos Calvo).
But the conclusion that it is impossible to get tickets outside the stadium at gameday is incorrect. I acutally did. I know for a fact that there is alot of fake tickets outside the stadium on that day. I however decided to buy mine from a old guy with a trolly of some kind, and he charged about three times as much as the young guys. I think I paid 450 pesos. My reasoning for buying from this guy was that he was immbobile beacuse of the trolly, he was old and I could have kicked his ass, and third the price seemed kind of fair and he was not willing to go any lower.
Good luck next time, if you don’t wanna do all this, there is a guy called Carlos from miami who owns a antique store at defensa who always hooked me up with tickets for all kind of events.

Hi Rolf… thanks for information. I’ve got to look for that guy with the trolley to see what his prices are. We didn’t mean to imply that you can’t buy tickets on the street, just that you can’t get regularly priced tickets at the ticket booth like we did for the Boca vs. Racing match. The difficult part of buying on the street is that you really don’t know if they’re legit. Some friends of ours talked their way into a game after paying 150 pesos for tickets that were fake. They pleaded that since they were on their honeymoon they ought to be let in and they got in. But not everyone’s Spanish is good enough to do that… nor would it always work.

Oh, and thanks too for mentioning Carlos. I’ve got to find this guy. We’re just 2 blocks away from Defensa so I’ll have to hit the antique shops and do some probing. Amazingly small world… Louisiana and San Telmo. There can’t be too many of us that share those homes.

What a fun post! I listened to all of the chants since I’m not familiar with any of them, really. Thanks for all the great info about Boca. Now I can impress Daniel’s stepdad. lol By the way, I hope you manage to snag tickets to the Boca-River match-up!
.-= Katie´s last blog ..The Other "Filadelfia" =-.

Thanks, Katie. The chants are amazing. Now you can sing along with the Boca fans down in Nocochea! Totally impress them.

We didn’t get tickets. Went this morning at 7AM and walked around where there were a bunch of drunks still out from Saturday night I think. We asked lots of people if the ticket windows were going to open and they all looked at us like we were crazy. So… we got the answer we were looking for… it is not possible to buy tickets to the Superclasico on the day of the game. But there still has to be a way that doesn’t cost $400 US. That’s just craziness.

Oh, and with all the rain we got, the game was canceled. So, I guess it’s just as well we didn’t get tickets.

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